Campaigning in Bihar’s Nawada Lok Sabha seat has created an unusual situation after two sitting RJD MLAs extended their support to Independent candidate Vinod Yadav instead of the party’s own candidate, Shravan Kushwaha. The RJD has taken a serious view of the matter and is mulling action against the two MLAs. The RJD’s State unit president Jagdanand Singh has deputed former party MLA Shakti Yadav as an observer in Nawada to deal with the situation.
Rajauli MLA Prakash Veer and Nawada MLA Vibha Devi are campaigning in support of Mr. Vinod Yadav, the brother of bahubali (strongman) Rajballav Yadav. Ms. Devi is the wife of Rajballav Yadav, who is currently serving a sentence of life imprisonment following his conviction in a case involving the rape of a minor. Mr. Veer and Ms. Devi are openly seen sharing the stage with Mr. Vinod Yadav, but neither has attended a single campaign of Mr. Kushwaha’s.
Although there is a direct fight between the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Mahagathbandhan grouping in Nawada, the contest may be triangular. On Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a rally in support of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s candidate Vivek Thakur, son of senior BJP leader and former Union Minister C.P. Thakur, a Bhumihar, whereas Mr. Kushwaha is a Koeri by caste, which falls under the Other Backward Classes (OBC).
When Mr. Vinod Yadav filed his nomination as an Independent candidate on March 28, he announced that he was contesting the election in response to the “call of the people of Nawada”, and stressed that Nawada would create history in the upcoming election.
Till 2008, Nawada was a reserved Scheduled Caste (SC) seat, but following the delimitation of 2008, it was turned into a general seat. Nawada has witnessed three Lok Sabha elections since the delimitation — in 2009, 2014 and 2019, and on all three occasions, the NDA’s candidates have won. The BJP’s candidates have won twice, whereas the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) won once.
Nawada has five Assembly constituencies — Rajauli, Hisuwa, Nawada, Govindpur, and Warisaliganj. Even the Govindpur MLA Mohammad Kamran has not been seen campaigning for the RJD candidate, but he hasn’t been seen sharing the stage with the Independent candidate either.
In the previous three elections, a Bhumihar candidate won the seat. The BJP’s Bhola Prasad Singh won in 2009, Giriraj Singh won in 2014, whereas the Lok Janshakti Party’s (LJP) Chandan Singh won the seat in 2019. And once again, the BJP has fielded a Bhumihar candidate in Mr. Thakur.
On April 12, the Leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Assembly and former Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav is scheduled to hold a rally in support of Mr. Kushwaha. It remains to be seen whether the two rebel RJD MLAs will share the stage with Mr. Tejashwi Yadav or not.
The total number of voters in Nawada is 22,67,453, with Bhumihar and Yadav voters playing a decisive role. In many areas, Brahmin and Muslim voters dominate, while extremely backward and Dalit voters are also present in large numbers.
Nawada votes in the first phase on April 19.
